Women's and children's activity profiles in Senegal and Mexico

This paper evaluates two methods for collecting time allocation data to describe women's and children's activities in two modernizing societies. Drawing on ethnographic field studies by the authors, it compares the research questions, data, results, and interpretations that can be made by means of spot versus day-long narrative observations. This paper, written jointly by a psychologist and an anthropologist, thus compares two methods and varying results obtained on the effect of different cash/occupational choices of mothers on their household activities and interactions with children.